How Much Do You Know About Fats and Cholesterol?

Trans fats and saturated fats, as well as their relationship with cholesterol has been a pretty confusing topic for many people. A common belief is that fats will develop cholesterol that is harmful to our body. Unfortunately, this is not correct. In reality, not all fats are bad for the body.

Cholesterol is manufactured naturally in our bodies by our liver. It can also be found in certain foods like eggs, seafood, meats, organ meats and animal products. Taking high volume of dietary cholesterol will increase the risk of many medical disorders including cardiovascular disease, heart disease, high blood pressure.

In general, there are 4 types of fats: mono-unsaturated, poly-unsaturated, saturated and Trans fats. The first 2 unsaturated fats are the healthier ones as they increase our HDL (high density lipoproteins, or what we called the 'good' cholesterol) and decrease LDL (low density lipoproteins, or what we called the 'bad' cholesterol). On the other hand, saturated and Trans fats are bad for our bodies as they increase our LDL. The damage caused by trans fats is even serious because they also decrease our HDL.

Foods such as animal fat, animal skin, animal products such as butter, coconut milk and dairy products are good sources of saturated fats. Trans fats are formed when vegetable oils goes through a process called hydrogenation. As such, products that are labeled 'partially hydrogenated' or 'hydrogenated' vegetable oil in the ingredient list do contain trans fats.

Unsaturated fats can be found in vegetable oils like olive oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, and foods like nuts, avocados and oily fish.

In fact, our bodies still require a certain amount of fats for absorption of vitamins as well as other daily functions. Therefore, we should allocate only 10 per cent of our daily caloric intake for saturated and Trans fats, as recommended by health experts, and should take more foods containing unsaturated fats.

Let’s Talk About Fats Again – Unsaturated Fats

Unsaturated Fats are considered healthier than saturated fats and people are usually advised to take them instead of saturated fats.

They can be divided into 2 groups:

• Mono-unsaturated Fats

  Avocados, olive and canola oils are good sources of mono-unsaturated fats. They can lower cholesterol levels and it is believed that it can protect against heart disease.
  

• Poly-unsaturated Fats

  Sunflower, corn and soybean oils are believed to contain polyunsaturated fats. They can also be found in grain products, fish and seafood such as salmon, herring and mackerel.

  Various studies have shown that polyunsaturated fats help prevent heart problems such as heart attacks and palpitations.
  

Fat and Cholesterol

Fat and cholesterol are not the same. However, both cholesterol and saturated fats in diet may raise blood cholesterol level which may eventually cause heart disease. Therefore, it is recommended that you should take only 15 to 32g of saturated fat and less than 300mg of cholesterol per day. You should avoid fried and oily food and replace saturated fats with poly-unsaturated fats (such as some vegetable and fish oils) and mono-unsaturated fats (such as olive and canola oils).